


Raised You From Perdition

by thisisapaige



Series: Thisisapaige's Suptober20 Collection [16]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Castiel Makes a Deal with The Shadow (Supernatural), Dean Winchester Saves Castiel, First Kiss, Fix-It of Sorts, Grieving Dean Winchester, Happy Ending, M/M, One Shot, Post-Series, Suptober 2020 (Supernatural), Temporary Character Death, it counts if it hasn't happened yet yeah?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27053896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisapaige/pseuds/thisisapaige
Summary: (For Suptober20. Day 16 Prompt: Switch it Up!)⁂“Cas saved me.” For the first time in a month, Dean said the name aloud. “So, it’s my turn. Time to switch it up, y’know? Take care of him for a change.”Dean would grip Cas tight and raise him from perdition.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: Thisisapaige's Suptober20 Collection [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950343
Comments: 25
Kudos: 165





	Raised You From Perdition

**Author's Note:**

> Cas is gonna live, darn it, even if I have to do the work myself!  
> [Come cry with me on Tumblr!](https://thisisapaige.tumblr.com/)

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t okay. 

They saved the world but they sure as hell didn’t win.

Dean spent the week after the final battle in his room. The week after that, he drank. The next week, he paced around the bunker like a caged animal. 

But it wasn’t Dean who was caged. It was Cas trapped in the deep, dark Empty because… because…

Dean grieved. Sam mostly avoided him, leaving food at Dean’s door that was never touched. Sam was hurting too, but Dean couldn’t find any comfort within him to provide for either of them. 

Dean prayed. Dean prayed every night: _I’m sorry, I’m sorry I never told you; please come back, please come back, please come back._ He never received an answer. He doubted they were heard because Cas was--

No. Dean couldn’t accept it. Dean _wouldn’t_ accept it. 

He prayed one more time.

_Jack, I know you’re busy up there in Heaven but I could really use your help._

⁂

“Dean,” Sam said, hurrying down the bunker’s hallways after Dean. “This is dumb. This is _super_ dumb.”

“I’ll only be mostly dead,” Dean said, trying to stay far enough ahead of Sam so he couldn’t be stopped, “which means I’ll be slightly alive. That's enough for the kid to bring me back.”

“Okay but--”

Dean halted right in the middle of the hallway. Sam ran into Dean’s back. Dean took a deep, shaky breath.

“I love him, Sam.” Dean heard Sam’s intake of breath but he didn’t turn around. “And I never told him. He, he di--” Dean still couldn’t say it, wouldn’t accept it. “And I need--” Dean swallowed. There was no need to pretend anymore. There was no need to justify it. There was one truth. “I need him.”

“Yeah.” Sam pressed a hand against Dean’s back, warm and supportive. “I know you do.”

“Cas saved me.” For the first time in a month, Dean said the name aloud. “So, it’s my turn. Time to switch it up, y’know? Take care of him for a change.” 

Dean would grip Cas tight and raise him from perdition. 

⁂

Black. That was it. Just black. 

This was the final resting place of all those demons and angels? Maybe some of them deserved it but, still, this place sucked. 

No way was Dean going to let Cas stay here. 

Dean’s fingers twitched with borrowed power. He tightly closed his fist to keep control of it. He only had one shot. He needed to make it count. 

Dean walked. It didn’t feel like he advanced. There was nothing but inky blackness everywhere. 

The blackness moved. It gathered in front of Dean, becoming an undulating mass that grew in size and shape. The blackness stuttered and stretched until it took the form of a humanoid figure. It spread its long misshapen appendages wide, the darkness swirling until the figure became a man.

The figure, the physical manifestation of the Empty, became Cas. It wasn't right. The form was too shadowy, too long, too twisted. It was nothing like the Cas that Dean had known and loved. The Cas that Dean still loved.

“No, no, no,” the Empty said, its voice all wrong. “It was over. It was done. I was _sleeping._ ”

“Where is he?” Dean crossed his arms and held his chin high.

“With me.” The Empty's borrowed face twisted into a cruel smirk. “Castiel is dead. Accept it. He’s mine now. Mine forever.”

“Cas deserves better than this!” Dean stepped closer to the figure. He wasn't scared. He wasn't afraid. He was angry. “Not this! Not because of…”

“Because of _you,_ you mean.” The Empty raised its eyebrows, letting loose a callous laugh that would never come out of the mouth it stole. “I really must thank you for that.”

“Give. Him. Back,” Dean hissed through clenched teeth, moving closer to the Empty with each word. 

“Let me think about it.” The Empty’s eyes were too dark, too hard, when they looked at Dean. It tapped its fingers on its chin, humming in mock deliberation. “No.” 

Dean stared into those eyes, the wrong eyes, and refused to back down. The Empty’s lips twitched the tiniest amount. Dean latched on to that movement, that small hint Dean had affected this creature, this being of emptiness.

"I'm not going anywhere. So, I guess we'll have to stand here for all eternity." Dean leaned in closer, and, yes, there was a flash of something behind the Empty's wrong coloured eyes. "Awake."

The Empty roared, the inhuman sound sending shockwaves through the blackness. It clenched its fist, blackness seeping out from the palm, and reared back.

The force of the punch sent Dean flying in the darkness. The Empty’s form became a speck in the distance. Struggling to climb back onto his feet, Dean watched as the Empty advanced towards him.

“Did you think that being a spirit would keep you safe? Did you think the nephilim's magic would protect you from me? From _me?”_ The Empty reached down and hauled Dean to his feet by his shirt collar. When the Empty spoke, low and menacing and sounding nothing like the form he stole, Dean’s skin crawled. “This is my domain. I am the architect. I chose what happens here.”

The Empty threw Dean. Dean slid across the darkness, his hands struggling to find purchase on nothingness, before he came to a stop. His fingers twitched, the power building under the surface but Dean didn’t call it forth. He needed it. He needed it to save Cas.

“C’mon.” Dean spat blood and watched the red fall into infinite darkness. “That’s all you got?”

The Empty pulled Dean upward by his hair. “Not at all.”

The impact of the landing forced the air out of Dean’s lungs. Which was weird because he technically didn’t have lungs. Dean had a feeling his body back in the bunker wasn’t looking so good. 

Dean lay flat on his back, unable to do anything other than observe the Empty approach. Dean’s closed his eyes. His fingers twitched. Last chance. 

_Sorry, Cas,_ Dean prayed. _I_ _love you._

The expected attack never came. Dean opened his eyes.

Eyes blazing blue and a sphere of bright light caught between his palms, Cas stood over Dean. He faced the Empty, the entity that stole his face, and hurled the light at its body. The light dissipated the dark shadows.

Dean struggled to sit up. “Cas?”

“I heard your prayer.” Cas kneeled beside Dean and helped him return to his feet.

“Oh.” Dean leaned against Cas’s shoulder. “Okay.”

“The entity will be back,” Cas said, his eyes scanning the blackness. “You need to return to your body.”

“I came here for you, Cas.” Dean groaned and held onto his side. He stood face to face with Cas, making sure his next words were fully understood, “I’m getting you out of here.”

Cas narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. Dean’s heart fluttered at the familiar expression. He thought he would never see it again. 

The darkness pulsated, the ripples reminiscent of a heartbeat. The Empty was all around them, closing in, threatening to take them both. 

“Dean, you need to go,” Cas said. 

“Not without you.” Dean’s fingers twitched. He raised his hand, the yellow sparks of Jack’s borrowed power flitting over his skin. “I’m gonna haul your ass outta perdition even if it kills me.”

Before Cas could reply, Dean slammed his hand against Cas’s chest, right over his heart. Dean wrapped his other arm around Cas’s shoulders, pulling him close. The power swirled around their bodies, keeping the darkness at bay.

Just before the light consumed them, Dean pressed his lips against Cas’s.

⁂

Dean woke up with a gasp. He shot out of bed and scrambled to his feet, pushing his way past Sam and Jack. They shouted after Dean but Dean didn’t hear the words. 

It worked. It worked. It worked.

It had to have worked. 

Dean ran through the bunker’s halls, the floor cold on his bare feet and the bruises the Empty placed on his soul manifesting on his body. Dean didn't care. He cared about one thing: going to the last place he saw Cas.

He kicked the dungeon door open in his haste. He ignored the pain that flared through his foot. Panting in the doorway and his heart slamming in his chest, Dean waited. 

A quick burst of blue and yellow light flashed in the centre of the devil’s trap. Cas appeared, his back to Dean. Slowly, so, so, slowly, Cas turned around. They locked eyes from across the room. For the space of a few heartbeats, they only stared. 

Dean didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. He stepped into the dungeon, stepped right up to Cas, and kissed him. Dean kissed him as he should have a decade ago. Dean kissed him to tell him how much he was missed. With all his need, all his desire, all his love, Dean kissed Cas breathless.

When they pulled apart, Dean pressed his ear against Cas’s chest, listening to his heart beat strong and healthy. On Cas's chest, his shirt was burned away, the white fabric black at the edges. Dean pushed it back to check underneath. 

A burn raised in red marked Cas’s skin. It was a handprint, a claim, right over Cas’s heart. Dean’s placed his hand over it, fitting it perfectly. 


End file.
